^^ Come on Nur - gime credit to recognize I'm watching cracp - even when phangiri is all over my mind 😆 I do confess, if Kesar had not happened, I'd never notice Neil. I went back to hunt out his old stuff on a very random whim not because I was missing him onscreen (because who I'm missing is a lot more Kesar than Neil very frankly) but just because having seen this actor deliver what can easily be his best till date - and maybe for a long time to come, though hopefully not his last - I just wanted to see how far back he goes, and how long he has come. Being attached with dramz for a considerable time gives me a soft spot for an actor's journey and growth - and interestingly, Neil has very persistently striven to grow as one - a rare goal for actors on Indian TV, and dare I say even in Bollywood to a large extent? When you think of why the many other much popular faces could not bag this show and critical character - not even a brand new face from genuine theater background - there's is a lot of ground work in Neil as an actor. Compare his career graph and experience with the rest of the cast - and compare the onus on him in portraying a character like Kesar - and its evident the show makers did tons of homework in finalizing him despite being the odd lesser actor, newer face on the block. But what's true about his growth in 5 months of doing Gulaal - is also very true of his career graph in general. And maybe his role in Karol Bagh had something to do with offering him a somewhat similar role - in playing the younger male lover - but really, I doubt that was the criteria for Gulaal's CVs and director.
On a side note, it helps that the basis of this very ridiculous show (that I watched last night, lol) was based in a more historic get up. I just like watching all those ancient props and themes and horses and customs and whatnot! Did I ever mention how huge I was on Rajat Tokas shows when he did Prithviraj Chauhan and then DharamVeer?! - and no, I wasn't fawning over this brand new teen hottie - lol - in fact when I watched his first interview, it was such a turn off, I had to thereafter blind myself to the fact that the actor and the character were the same person 😆 But I have an innate bias for historic plots - all the more in Indian history - my grudge shall be never quite getting a complete show which lives up to how much scope such plots can have. Despite the lack of technology in their time, I think its safe to say that the original Mahabharta was the best made 'epic-myth' on Indian TV. There's a lot about it that is outdated, even slow - but you sit through it, the dialog sense, the editing, the overall making of the show is phenomenal - all the more so, for its time. It's almost like one would compare the series of Star Wars movies, the old 3 versus new ones. I always liked 4,5,6 more - which were ironically made before 1,2,3... although the news ones far exceeded in effects and tech highlighting.
So yeh - proud to be a phankaa, lol, but its really far more about his work than his face 😆 He's an admirable artist - the adulation is well deserved! And of course, every bow in order for Kesar - a character any genuine artist should kill for!
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